Much appreciation goes out to the Simi Valley Acorn for supporting the fundraising efforts to keep For The Troops active in Ventura County. Your article, noting the need for funds to ship care packages packed and ready at the Headquarters of For The Troops, motivated people to fill Topper’s Pizza at our recent fundraiser for a highly successful turnout that netted FTT with the funds needed to start shipping the nearly 1,000 boxes we had not been able to send.

Chuck Cronin, owner of a marketing company in Moorpark, offered to match any funds raised in the month of April to help send that many more. He has three nephews who are U.S. Marines, all of whom have served in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

These care packages elicit many responses from the service men and women who receive them. Each box costs $10.70 to mail. The more money we raise, the more boxes we send. One hundred percent of the monetary contributions we receive go to this effort.

Monetary contributions also can be made online at www.ForTheTroops.org or by mail to For the Troops, P.O. Box 630103, Simi Valley, CA 93063.

Monthly fundraisers are planned at different restaurants willing to donate a portion back to send those packages. Donated items are collected at these events. These are win-win situations for our restaurants and for our troops.

Please join us for our next fundraiser with the Assurance Document Shredding event on Sat., June 19 from 9 a.m. to noon at our headquarters, 2872 Cochran, Simi Valley. Bring your personal or professional documents to be shredded and pay $8 a box and proceeds will be donated for our care packages.

It’s an ongoing labor of love, with more than 21,000 care packages sent, and we continually need funds to ship these packages. Thank you to the editors for granting us the space and coverage and to your readers for supporting our heroes.
Paula Cornell, Janie Josephson
Simi Valley

Cornell and Josephson are the cofounders of For The Troops.